American Hardcourt Season - Run up to USO

Bit of a lull after the French and Wimbledon but still plenty of tournaments going on. You may have heard that Federer has pulled out of the Rogers Cup in Canada. Presumably means he'll play Cincinnati.
Main interest for British fans over next few weeks surrounds Murray. He did enough in his brief grass-court appearances to suggest he can get back to something like his best, although it's going to take time. The Djoko triumph at Wimbledon has really shaken things up at the top. At the start of this year I thought Djoko would bounce back and at that stage I could see him doing well at the French and Wimbledon. But his form up to Wimbledon was patchy so it was a surprise he won it.
Djoko must be regarded as one of the favourites for the USO. Just as I had a hunch Fed would not win Wimbledon this year, I reckon Rafa won't win the 2018 USO. What I am prepared to predict is that the winner in new York this year will be at least 29 years old (hedging my bets a bit here, as Cilic and Delpo are both still 29).

Will be interesting to see if Nadal and Djokovic play both Masters events leading up to the USO. I think Nadal might skip Cincinnati depending on how far he gets in Toronto.

Djoko may well want to play both Canada and Cinci as it gives him a chance to get his ranking up ahead of the USO. A worse draw for him at Wimbledon this year could have seen him play Fed or Rafa even before the quarters.
I see Hyeon Chung is back with a win having been out since beginning of May. He was impressive at the AO this year.

Playing both might get Djokovic into top 8. Even if he won both I think top 4 is not possible or very unlikely. If he stays between 9 and 12 he would still avoid playing Nadal or Federer before the Q/F's at the USO. Therefore depending on how his body feels he may also not be prepared to play both.

Should be interesting for the return of Andy Murray. Surely Federer can't keep up his grand slam winning ways. Nadal looks good. Djokovic is getting better. Nishikori looks like he is nearly back. Kyrgios looks quite good and very good in patches - but he keeps getting little injuries. We are still waiting for the big breakthrough from the younger generation - Chung has been out with injury and Edmund hasn't been able to reproduce his Australian Open 2018 run - but still seems to be on the improvement path. Then we have Coric, Thiem and A Zverev. Shapovalov has reached a temporary ceiling in his progression but at some stage should take it to the next level. Then we have Cilic, Anderson, Del Potro ...

Good win yesterday for Cameron Norrie in Atlanta, overcoming Chardy after being a set down. Kyrgios up next for the Briton. Norrie has risen more than 200 places (currently 73) in the last 12 months.

Another retirement by Kyrgios gives Norrie a semi-final place in Atlanta. Interesting final in prospect in the Moscow women's tournament where two 17-year-olds - one a WC, the other an LL - meet for the title.

LATER: Norrie beaten in three by Harrison who will play Isner in the final. Key to beating Isner? Win the tiebreaks. You won't break his serve very often.

Well, Harrison did break the Isner serve to take the first set in that Atlanta final but Isner fought back to take the next two to land a 5th title in Georgia.
Today Murray is in action, taking on Mackenzie McDonald in the first round at Washington. The winner will meet.....Kyle Edmund. Andy says he's in good shape and feeling good. He's also been given a WC into Cincinnati.
Just checked the latest top 100 men's rankings. A third of the players are aged 30 or above and a further 17 are either 28 or 29.

Murray scrapes thru 7-5 in the third against Macdonald in Washington. Poor start for Andy, dropping serve repeatedly in the first set but rallied after that.
Extraordinary 10th game in final set, with the American saving five MPs and breaking back only to be broken again to leave Murray serving for the match. One more MP was saved before Murray won.
A two hour 37 minute match which will at the very least provide Murray with much-needed match practice. Kyle Edmund up next.
Good win for GB's Katie Boulter in Washington, who beat a girl scores of places higher than her 2 and love.

Little steps is what it is about for Andy. At least that is now his fourth match on his comeback and he is yet to suffer a breakdown etc. That is a positive healthwise. Timing, fitness, competitiveness and winning titles again takes time.

Murray said afterwards that everything felt fine although he admitted he'd struggled at times and that it was a "tough match". Stop Clock was in use, apparently. Interesting to see what Rafa will make of it at the USO.

sirfredperry wrote:Murray said afterwards that everything felt fine although he admitted he'd struggled at times and that it was a "tough match". Stop Clock was in use, apparently. Interesting to see what Rafa will make of it at the USO.

Djoko and Delpo too

In my view the stop-clock is overkill and a nonsense.    Much better to keep it as it is - umpires discretion.  The umpires have always had the power to penalise the players.  The issue is that the game has changed - for various reasons the fast serve and volley had been marginalised from the game thanks to the great returners with  superstrings, light rackets, and larger racket heads.  Some rallies can go on for a long time involving a lot of running, accelerations and decelerations.  This is what Nadal Djokovic Murray and Del Potro brought to the game - as did Federer although he was a more attacking player.

Maybe so, but does anyone really want to see e.g. Djokovic bounce the ball 15 times and take 30 seconds after he's just served an ace. Because that's what 'umpires discretion' is allowing.

If the tournament director doesn't want umpires discretion he should complain to the ITF - who determine the rules of the game. The umpires have had timers for sometime now - but they were given discretion. All they needed to do was to remove that discretion, rather than introduce stop clocks.

Konta has beaten Serena one and love in San Jose. Williams looked awful in the Wimbledon final and is clearly struggling, although Konta by all accounts played well.
Another defeat for Stan the Man after a final set tiebreak setback against Young. Stan also having great difficulties it seems.
Murray v Edmund today. May be a bit closer than it was in Eastbourne.

sirfredperry wrote:.............. Stop Clock was in use, apparently. Interesting to see what Rafa will make of it at the USO.

Andy seemingly a fan of the clock, judging from his post-match comments.

This from tennis365 :

It was also Murray’s first experience with a serve clock, which will be used at the US Open this year, and he has given it his endorsement.

“Without a shot clock, that would have been a three-hour match,” Murray said. “It’s a positive change for tennis.”

Let’s hope it can help to cut out Novak’s personal how-many-times-can-I-bounce-a-ball-before-hitting-it competition and maybe some of Rafa’s excessive towelling etc

So I have been overruled by Andy Murray

Anyway the US Open will be 20 seconds rather than 25 seconds.

It will be interesting if someone had the time to check how many breeches of the serve clock occur and what penalties will be involved.
1st breech) Warning
2nd breech) point deduction?
3rd breech) forfeit of game?
4th breech) forfeit of match?

The rule is a warning then loss of first serve for any subsequent failure. It doesn’t extend beyond that so far as I’m aware.

I also thought it was 25 seconds at the US Open as well but can’t recall why I think that.

Murray and Edmund match underway. Going with serve early on with Murray leading 2-1.

Still on serve at 3-2. Areas for Murray to work on are cutting down on double faults and increasing court coverage speed. Also needs to hit deeper.

A set point for Murray on Edmund's serve goes begging.

Still on serve at 5-5 in the first set.

Edmund breaks in the 11th game but Murray breaks back in the 12th and we go to a first set tie-break.

And Murray wins the tie-break 7-4. Not scintillating tennis but not bad either.

Edmund breaks in the second set and leads 3-1 and holds to cement the serve to lead 4-1.

This second set has seen Murray's level drop and Edmund's rise and it looks nailed on for a third set with Edmund leading 5-1 in this set. Still it is promising that Murray is giving a player inside the top 20 such a work-out.

Edmund finally gets the set 6-1 on about the sixth set point. It will be interesting to see how Murray's fitness holds out in this third set. Over an hour and three quarters played now.

Third set begins with Murray having a battle to hold serve which he does. He leads 7-6 1-6 1-0.

Murray's first round match was a long three setter, so I would guess Murray is feeling the pace. Edmund has to hold strong and Murray has to find energy from somewhere I guess.

A more comfortable hold for Edmund. 1-1 in the third set.

No name Bertie wrote:Murray's first round match was a long three setter, so I would guess Murray is feeling the pace.  Edmund has to hold strong and Murray has to find energy from somewhere I guess.

True. Also worth throwing in there is that Edmund has his own bit of rust to shake off as this is his first match since Wimbledon and is recovering from tonsilitis.

Murray holds to love and leads 2-1 in the decider.

Andy's standards have a long way to go before he can even think of small tournament wins but a win here would prove that his competitiveness is still there in good amounts.

Edmund holds after trailing 0-30. 2-2.

Murray holds to lead 3-2.

Edmund taken to deuce on his serve but holds. Edmund got lucky there with a net cord helping him. 3-3.

A pretty straight forward hold for Murray to edge back ahead 4-3.

Murray’s fitness looks much improved from his grass court matches. Looks to be moving well towards the end of the third, after a long first round match as well.

What a backhand from Edmund at 3-4 0-30!

I have it now on the ATP website under live scores.  I am doing something else and occasionally looking in here to see what is happening with the match.   Anyway the match has lasted for 2 hrs and 20 minutes so far.  There seems to be no easy matches for Murray on his return.

Edmund recovers from 15-40 down to hold and it is 4-4.

Murray missed a golden chance to break there when he hit a chance of a winner just long on first break point.

No name Bertie wrote:There seems to be no easy matches for Murray on his return.

To expect easy matches after a year out is expecting far too much in my opinion.

Murray should have made the forehand at 15-40 - still signs of rust in his game.

Edmund’s forehand is a ludicrous weapon though. Must be close to 40 clean winners off it during the match.

A comfortable hold for Murray. He leads 5-4.

A double fault from Edmund gives Murray a match point. And Murray wins 7-6 1-6 6-4. Great win for him. Well done Andy.

Great win for Murray. Looked stronger and stronger as the match went on and was by far the better player in the third, despite the barrage of forehand winners.

Copil up next for a QF place.

That win will mean Murray will climb to around No 511 in the world. Also his first back-to-back wins since Wimbledon 2017.

Thanks for the commentary

So Murray hangs tough, and fights it out to win in three. He seems to have let the second set go to recoup energy. He is showing tactical nous and resilience. Sounds like he was pressuring Edmunds on his serve throughout the third set.